The Medical Importance of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ

11Jun

If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. 1 Cor 15:19

The resurrection of Jesus truly could be the most significant event in the history of mankind, apart from the incarnation of Christ. It has extreme importance for those who work in the medical professions.

As students we first encounter our mortal enemy, death, in anatomy lab. A cold, lifeless, naked body lying before us does not seem real. We quickly learn to dehumanize this situation and separate ourselves from this reality. We will spend our lifetimes learning about, preventing and combating disease which brings us to an end of our physical being. But is this the end?

Medicine is a frustrating profession when dealing with death. We may convince ourselves that we are winning the battle but inevitably we fall short of our goal.

All of us have a desire to understand this pattern of life and death. We want to know where we came from, what happened and where we are going. How do we find answers to these questions and not live lives of desperation and futility?

Thank God we can find hope in the reality of the resurrection and the empty tomb. Not just an innocent man but a perfect man without fault who took upon himself the punishment we deserved. “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom 5:7-8)

They laid his cold, pale, cyanotic, lifeless body in a tomb. Their hope was crushed. Then on the third day, .Jesus was seen first by Peter, then by the twelve and then by over 500 at once. He spoke. He ate. He said, “Look at my hands and feet. Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones.” (Luke 24:38, 39) Jesus was alive!

As only medical professionals we will lose the battle against disease more often than we would like to admit. We can offer a temporary hope from the suffering of our patients. But, as Christians we can offer a permanent victory for eternity.

The resurrection is real. Our hope is real. When our human efforts fail, we can still offer this hope to all. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ”Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

Death has no victory for those whose believe in the living, resurrected Jesus.